OFC speaker wires or stock wiring?

I'm running a 50Wrms x 4ch amp to power fronts and rears.
Should i get proper OFC speaker wire or is it practical enough to use the stock wiring? Are they any differences in sound quality or loudness?
Sorry if this has been asked b4, tried searching for it to no avail.

Thanks

When installing an amp, I never use the stock wiring.  Even in premium sound systems, it's usually 18 guage at BEST, but most of the time is 20-22 guage.  Get yourself at least 16 guage, but preferably 14 guage to run throughout.  Any thicker and it's a pain to run.

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Muscle Cars Don't Just Look Good, But They Can Sound Good Too...
1971 Chevelle SS

Wrong, just plain wrong... Check this link... follow the speaker wire calculator link, and it;ll SHOW you there is no difference (except in your MIND) between nost speaker wires - ESPECIALLY at a power level like 50 watts...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Great link Ham Fist. Here's a good story. I was down in LA stereo shopping with for a very wealthy friend. The Hi End stereo shop guy said that without $2000 worth of super hi end speaker wires we would not hear the full quality of the $35K worth of home theater sound equipment we were looking at. I disagreed on the importance of the wire and offered him this challange: If he could hear the differance between the $2K wires and the generic wires, we would buy the system, full hit, right now. If he couldn't tell the differance in a blind test, he would give us 50% off! Needless to say, he declined. Premium RCAs are worth the money, premium speaker wire is not.

Been there, done that myself. Walked into a stereo shop with check in hand, and offered the SAME deal to the salesman, and it's amazing how often such an offer is declined!!! I think it was a Kimber dealer, if memory serves me correctly. If even the "bad dudes" of cable can't get their OWN sales guys to jump on the chance of a conditional sale (but a high dollar sale, nonetheless) I'd start yelling "Snake Oil"!

Having done some VERY scientific as well as subjective tests in this same area, I can tell you the most important part of a speaker wire is the DC resistance, which is where the size comes into play. Before anybody starts yelling about silver being a better conductor, let me inform you that silver is only a 5% better conductor than copper - for a 200% increase in cost. Can you say "point of diminishing returns"? Get a copper wire that is 5% larger than the one you are looking at, (i.e. the next size up) and there is your "silver wire".

Insulation DOES make a difference, but it can ONLY make a difference in high frequencies. The insulator acts as the dielectric in a capacitor, and the better the dielectric, the faster the capacitor can react. Two flat wires (ribbons), laid side-by-side, was the VERY best as far as DCR, inductance and capacitance were concerned, all of which SHOULD be as low as possible, but DCR is still the most important - which can be overcome by simply choosing a larger wire gauge.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Not to break out the dead horse beating stick, as this arguement is made on every forum dealing with audio, but on the subject of interconnects, I have not found there to be no difference. I work for a shop where we deal both AudioQuest and Monster. Between the two cable lines, there are differences in sound. I can't say if one is delivering a better sound, but they are different. I have yet to really do critical listening to compare speaker wires.

haemphyst, it is difficult for salespeople to avoid the brainwashing that some companies do (they call it product training), but some of it actually makes sense, such as better, less absorbant insulators around the conductors of the interconnects, etc.. That being said, I believe in many cases they are as much a status symbol to the people who buy them as anything, as they don't really make any comparisons, they just want them. Some people would never dream of hooking their Mark Levinson gear up to their B&W speakers with zip cord. However, if a customer listens to them and hears the difference, then by no means am I going to tell them they are wrong. Human hearing is a complex thing, perception does play a role in what we hear. I do however think you did hit the nail on the head, especially in a car environment with "point of diminishing returns". There are so many other obsticles to overcome in the car environment, the very minor gains you may acheive would not be worth the $50K + you can spend on cables.

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04 MDX - Clarion DRZ9255 / MB Quart QAA4250 / MB Quart QSD216 / Orion Concept 97.2 / JL Audio 10w6v2
91 GMC Syclone - Delco tape deck
90 Syclone powered 2wd S10 (for sale) - Pyle CD / Fosgate 4x6

He didn't say there wasn't a difference in interconnect qualities and sound...

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Sam Roza

I replaced a set of $20 Stinger RCA's with a set of $170 JL Audio Premium-series interconnects..

I couldn't hear a difference at all in terms of actual sound clarity... but ya know what did disappeer?  A faint alternator whine at high volumes. 

That was worth the money eh?

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Hey Sedate, I see you copped an E-1800. Does this mean you bi-amped your fronts? If so, how did it turn out?

Hehe naww man I've had that amp for a year. Its feeding my 13W6.

I'm actually buying an Audiocontrol EQX from haemphyst for that purpose ... the e6450 is a 6-channel a/b amp.. I have the front 4 channels briged to a componet set and last two feeding my rear-speakers... 150x2, 45x2... the e1800 at 800x1 for the w6.

When I drop in the EQX i'll be biamping the front componets discretely front the front 4 channels. I'll definately post some pictures and let everyone know how it goes... I'm actually *really* proud of how I redid my trunk last time around.. it looks better than many a install I've seen... least outside of shows and goofy fiberglass work... I'm kinda a minimalist by philosophy so I think fiberglass wings and crap that show off amps are kinda stupid looking.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview